Colouring the World, through my Kaleidoscope!

Category Archives: Health

As I was strolling through the village, something cute and colorful caught my eye. It was this display:

Then a woman said to me “do you know what this REALLY is?” AAANNNDDD being a beauty enthusiast I knew it was a bath soap! LOL!! I walked with her into the cute little shop on Bleeker street and it was sooo luxurious inside!

View of first window display from inside

View of second window display from inside

The lovely lady, named Jenn, asked me to give her my hand and she scooped up a scrub and told me to fold it around my hands thoroughly. After a few minutes she was like “are you ready?? Make sure you are ready!! You sure you’re ready??” – and man, I thought I was ready but I was not! As I started rinsing my hands, I kid you not, they literally felt like silk!!

I mean I have gone to several such skincare shops and felt a difference in my skin after doing the same thing, but this was a few notches up!! I was really amazed! She showed me some other lotions and scrubs for the body and then we talked about facial skin care.

She had me test a peel on my arm which left my skin feeling so fresh. You could actually see the color difference compared to my other arm. It visibly took away dirt, sun spots and impurities from my skin instantly! The best part – you only have to leave it on your skin for 30 seconds!! My problem with most of my face masks I own is that you have to leave it on for 15-20 mins. I don’t have patience like that. That’s such a first world problem!! UGH!

Jenn was really thorough in explaining to me how to use all the products. She was also sweet enough to offer me an amazing deal since it was their 7 year anniversary this weekend! She told me if I bought the peel, she would give me a body lotion, facial exfoliant, body exfoliant AND a hand cream all for free!! I was like okay this is totally worth it!!!!! If you know me, I usually never do this. I usually just walk out empty handed.

Now, if you think the fun already started – think again – NOW she told me they are doing a thing on their site where they are recording customers trying on the products for marketing their 7 year anniversary. I was totally game!! OBVIOUSLY lol!!!

So she took a video of me applying an eye serum and cream she additionally showed me. I totally winged it! haha! It was so much fun! If you are on my social media, I have posted it on pretty much all the social media I am on. If you are not on my pages, you should be lol but if you are anti-social media, feel free to ask me if you would like to see it.

The Moroccan/German mixed Isreali beauty (what an exoticccc and beautiful mix!!!! And if you are al little confused, She is half Moroccan, half German but grew up in Isreal) againdecided to be so kind and generous to me and gave me 3 sample sized packages of the eye serum and cream!!! Shout out to Jenn! She is soo wonderful!!

In conclusion, I really want to address the story behind this product and why I truly support them. CEO and founder of Arianna Skincare, Miri Torres, was inspired to create an all-natural skincare line after her struggle with Lymphoma cancer. Miri was diagnosed in 1998 with stage 4B Hodgkin’s Lymphoma disease. After harsh chemotherapy treatments, her skin suffered and her immune system became weak due to her aggressive treatments. Her goal was to find a solution to help repair her skin naturally. During her research Miri found her answer from the lowest place on earth: The Dead Sea.

Thank you soo much to Jenn and Arianna Skincare for the amazing service!!! Jenn was so warm and hospitable and my experience at Arianna Skincare was magnificent! I highly recommend you go checking them out! The location I went to was on 325 Bleecker Street. Their website is: https://www.arianna-skincare.com

In an effort to be more healthy, let’s talk about what’s so unhealthy that most people love – SUGAR. I have decided to try cutting out sugar from my diet. I like sweets, but I definitely can say my sweet tooth is not crazy; and I definitely know how to control myself. If I crave sweet, I either will allow myself to have whatever sweet I am craving – because I usually know I will be satisfied after a small portion. Sometimes though, I am mean to myself and say no!

I’m not sure how deleting sugar from my diet will make me feel or how it will change me or if I even will want to or whatever, but people usually save eventually you get to a point where you don’t want sweets anymore. I am hoping this becomes my result because diabetes seems to run in my family all of the sudden (meaning all of the sudden all these older relatives of mine are telling me they have it out of like nowhere and it’s like one after another!) and I see what they go through and it’s a life I want to avoid.

Anyways, I’m ready to experiment! This week I am going to go strict and consciously try to avoid all or as much as possible sugar I can, and then see how I feel. From there I will see if I can continue on like that (obviously with a cheat day here and there – I’m human after all!) or at least I hope I can still continue on with as much reduced sugar as possible especially during weekdays.

With that in mind, I thought let me get one last weekend of really bad sweet binging out of the way! It’s funny though because like I said, I don’t have a crazy sweet tooth, so I was almost not going to get the 1st item on my list below! But I did it for the blog 😛

Here is my list of “the best of” sweets edition in NYC!

BEST COOKIE: City Cakes

I’m sooooo sorry all you Levain Bakery lovers. No, no & no. Levain is sooo yesterday!! Who wants to go allllll the way to the Upper West Side to stand on line for an hour for a cookie that will go hard if you leave it for the next day?

City Cakes cookie are thick and soft! Sooo perfect and if you save some for the next day or two (they are so freakin big, they usually take me 3 days to finish!) they still stay chewy and delicious! The bakery is so cute too! Saturday I bought the peanut butter and a chocolate chip. The peanut butter was good, but very peanut buttery. I thought there would be more chocolate in it, since it has m&m’s inside. I have tried the red velvet, peanut butter and I think the Nutella stuffed, which are all good, but their chocolate chip is my absolute favorite! Their classic chocolate chip is THE BEST IN THE CITY HANDS DOWN!

BEST ICE CREAM: Davey’s Ice Cream

This funky ice cream parlor is right in the heart of the east village. They have really funky flavors as well, such as ‘Strong Coffee’, ‘Speculoos Chocolate Chip’ and ‘Mexican Vanilla’, which of course they let you sample, on their regular menu, but they also have seasonal/monthly flavors which are really creative and funky like ‘Black Sesame’, ‘Red Velvet Oreo’ which I tried and it was amazing, ‘Matcha’, ‘Peppermint Chip’, once they had a ‘Star Wars’ flavor, everything!

The thing is, Davey’s Ice Cream is made on-site from raw ingredients, and you really can taste the difference! Each batch requires a four-day-long production schedule. They also sell birch house coffee, cakes, milkshakes, sundaes, home made marsh mellows (huggeee marsh mellows!) pies, cookies, ice cream sandwiches, like everything!! They have everything!! Ohh, and artisan style cones decorated with cereal and cookies! See! Everything! And all this everything that they offer is homemade and delicious! My go-to is the cookies and cream with the salted caramel sauce – omg! It’s like crack lol.

BEST (CHEESE)CAKE: Martha’s Country Bakery

Sorry Manhattanites, you gotta come to Queens for this slice of heaven! Martha’s Bakery is located in Astoria as well as Forest Hills, Bayside and they also have a location or two in Williamburg, which is in Brooklyn. THE best cakes & desserts. It has a European touch and they have a full coffee bar. They sell cupcakes, cakes, cookies, brownies, tarts, macaroon, gelato and cake cake cake cake cake – a variety of sorts of cakes and cheesecakes, you name it! Have you ever heard of a blue velvet cake??? They got it!

My favorite is the apple crumb cheesecake. The bottom half is filled with apple pie filling, the middle with creamy, amazing cheesecake, and it’s topped off with cinammony crumble. I’m so glad the location in my neighborhood is on the complete other side, making it difficult for me to run on over whenever I crave that cheesecake! I must add the desserts are so pretty and the space has a very Euro vibe. It’s also very cozy and clean.

If coming out to the boroughs is such a thang for you, the best alternative in Manhattan I would say is Juniors for cheesecake. There IS another place located in Soho called Eileen’s Special Cheesecake, but I have not been there yet. It’s on my list though!

BEST DOUGHNUTS: Dough

Yum! These are so delicious! I have tried the cafe au lait and one I really love – mocha almond crunch. The doughnuts here are big and fluffy. They have cake doughnuts and regular with loads of flavors.

The hibiscus flavor seems to be really popular. I don’t know how I feel about that and I’m not sure if I’m willing to risk it unless they were giving out free samples. Maybe I’m missing out? Maybe one day I’ll decide to try it. Maybe that day I’ll be angry I wasted $5 on a doughnut that was weird.

BEST POPSICLE: La Newyorkina

Wepaaa!! This place is soooo cute!!! As a non-Latina, the first time I walked in here I was so overwhelmed and confused. So I came back with a Latina and had her translate 😛 They have Mexican ice cream flavors, popsicles, frozen yogurts, ect. We both got the mango chili palettes (Mango ice pops).

They have these tubs of chili randomly left around that you can sprinkle on your ice pop. I HIGHLY recommend trying this. I HIGHLY recommend trying this. I am tempted to type that sentence again, but I think you get the picture 🙂

BEST HOT CHOCOLATE: Jacques Torres

Back in January I was at City Bakery and tried their hot chocolate, although it was similar, it got cold quick and lost its je ne said quoi. So Jacque Torres, to me, is still the best.

Honestly, I am not a hot chocolate fan. I was introduced to JT in 2010 when I was working down in Tribeca and a coworker was raving about it so much. It was a block or two down from our office, so one day she took me and I had never tried hot chocolate like this before! It’s literally thick, melted chocolate! You can choose regular, or ‘Wicked’. I prefer the regular. They have handmade, artisan chocolates, which make perfect gifts! There several locations throughout the city and Mr. Torres has even recently opened a museum!

BEST LATTE: Coffeecake Corner

Only Because they have a peanut butter mocha and although it’s pretty small inside, the few times I came here I could always find a seat! I usually don’t drink latte’s either. If I get a latte it’s usually some type of soy mocha and I usually end up throwing it out after a few sips.

This though, is definitely a treat! As far as coffee goes, I am not sure. I cannot find my absolute favorite when it comes to actual coffee. I do enjoy illy coffee but a lot of coffee shops are just decent. I hate to admit it but lately my go-to has been cart coffee on weekday mornings. I actually enjoy it more than any other independent coffee shop or you know, Starbucks.

These are my top favorite desserts and my top favorite places FOR those desserts in the city. Sorry I gotta say sayonara to them for now! I do believe in cheating here and there, with control, but my goal is to make those cheat cravings become less often than before. But if you are not watching your sugar (something I am not encouraging but you are an adult!) or you do come to New York on holiday (holidays = excuse to cheat on your diet!), definitely try out these places! I guarantee you will not be disappointed!

As I was walking down the shops in SoHo this weekend, this caught my eye:

St. Ives opened it’s first ever pop up shop in SoHo! Unfortunately it’s only temporary around; but I would assume depending on the way things go hopefully they will launch an actual store.

I’m sure just about everyone has an empty tube of St. Ives Apricot Scrub in the back of their shower they have forgotten about. What’s not to love about this product line?! I grew up using it. It’s cheap, it’s all natural; making it a great scrub which has always made my skin look and feel better than many of the more pricy scrubs and lotions I have tried.

The concept behind this shop is that you can customize your very own face scrub or body lotion, starting with their 100% natural exfoliants, extracts, or moisturizers.

Their exclusive Mixing Bar contains over 50 ingredient combinations. The combinations are endless! But in the end, you will have created your very own unique mix!!

Umm, they also have a really cool photo booth!! With a hashtag so you can jump on insta and hash the crap out of your pics. YASSS!!!!! 😁🙋‍♀️

The staff is really friendly. The decor is fresh and fun. They also sell candles. You could wind up spending a whole afternoon there – but you have to hurry! The pop up shop is only around until the 30th of June! So get going before it’s gone!

Wishing you all a happy & successful new year! The most common resolution people make on new years almost always is to get fit and travel. You want to escape the gloomy, depressing post-holiday months. You want to plan a tropical beach getaway. Once that’s all sorted, next step is you gotta get fit! See the cycle?! 😉

Whenever I am about to go somewhere, I find myself getting rediculously motivated to get fit! I always want to look and feel my best, especially when I’m about to travel somewhere. There are so many trends in the health, fitness and wellness industry, but the options that are most trusted are the ones that have been around for ages in all parts of the globe!

Lately I’ve been doing my research on the benefits of aloe based products, and wow! What a discovery! Aloe Vera is an amazing plant that grows wild in tropical climates around the world. It’s known for its natural soothing, cooling and moisturizing abilities and can help aid your skin’s natural ability to regenerate itself. Nowadays it can be found in many medical and cosmetic products including lotions, ointments, lip balms, shampoos even beverages!

Aloe Vera is GREAT for hair, skin & weighloss. It contains something called proteolytic enzymes which repairs dead skin cells on the scalp, therefore, acting as a GREAT conditioner that leaves your hair smooth and shiny!!! It’s also rich in Vitamin C, E and beta carotene, which gives it its nourishing and anti-ageing qualities. It can moisturise the skin without making it greasy, which is great if you have oily skin (like me)! Also, drinking aloe vera juice early in the morning on an empty stomach improves digestion and can cure any kind of stomach trouble. The key here is that if you’ve got a healthy inside, it’ll give you a glowing outside which in this case is radiant skin!!!

Ever since I’ve been doing my research I have been finding myself purchasing products containing Aloe Vera and throwing them in my carry on luggage! Excellent way to pack healthy toiletries along with you to make you feel good on the go! There have been times when I’ve gone shop to shop looking for decent toiletries and personal care items but the travel sections are normally filled with such items that don’t contain the healthiest ingredients for you. A lot of drug stores carry the most dated items in the travel section, and everything is usually also in limited quantity.

Let’s face it! We all want to look good and feel good before we jet off to a tropical island! And then you want to glow and stay healthy while you are out enjoying paradise as well! I know, I know, you are thinking “yes, my Punjabi princess, but I don’t know where in my small village in the middle of nowhere Germany they sell good quality aloe vera products.” Well, Gertrude, sweetheart, I got you covered! 😉

Follow the link below to discover an amazing variety of aloe vera products to get you prepped for your next exciting getaway! I bet you never thought of certain products containing this wonderfully hydrating plant! The harsh winter winds can really take a toll on your skin, but thats where this magical plant comes in to rid you of that dull, dry, flaky skin! Trust me, you will feel soo good and then you will have one less worry pre-vacation!